Catholic Cardinal George Pell has spent close to six hours under intense scrutiny at the Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Australia's highest ranking Catholic, the Cardinal claimed no-one within the Church knew what a tremendous, widespread mess they were sitting on regarding child abuse, but couldn't evade the reality of the suicides that followed.

While stressing he's always been on the side of victims, he did acknowledge that some parts of the Church had tried to cover up offences.